the three of you and me
by chandelure
Summary: and maybe they were the original team seven, but he wasn't just a replacement anymore. —sai, team seven.


**Naruto**

He smiles crookedly at the picture of the three of them, back when Sakura's pink hair was long, back when Sasuke wasn't _gone_, back when he was always the obnoxious hyper blonde, not just the 'Kyuubi container.' He smiles because it had happened, at least, not because those days were (far too) long gone.

He smiles because he loves to dream.

.

**Sakura**

She cries as she looks at the picture of the _real _Team 7, when they weren't concerned with bringing Sasuke back, when they weren't holding onto slivers of hope, because they had all of the childish dreams they needed.

She cries because she misses his smirks, she cries because she misses fighting back to back, one family, not separate and fighting **each other**.

She cries because she'd never get those sunny days back.

.

**Sasuke**

He glares at the picture he'd wanted to burn _for the longest time_, because just having the photo of his old place in life kills him inside, knowing that he'd never belong anywhere like they let him belong all those years ago, knowing that he actually _missed _the annoying fangirl with the pink hair (Sakura, his mind whispers. She has a name, and it's Sakura.) and the stupid hyperactive blond (**Naruto**, his head screams. Your **best friend**, _Naruto_!).

He glares at the picture not because he hates his former teammates, but because he loves them in a twisted, Uchiha way.

He glares because the picture reminds him of belonging.

.

**Sai**

He stares at the drawing he had absently sketched and colored, because it was of Team Kakashi—of him, Naruto and Sakura. And he can't believe it because just looking at it somehow made him fit it, as if just knowing he was part of something special made him special, and he vaguely remembers Sakura telling him that, sometime in the past.

He stares at the drawing and he smiles, a real smile, because he suddenly knew he was learning and changing and being Sai, being _himself_, not just a shell.

He stares and he smiles because he was no longer just a replacement.

.

the three of you and me

**team seven/team kakashi  
**

.

.

.

He parades into Konoha expecting teary eyes and loving hugs, but instead, he receives an angry (_strong_) punch to the face from a (more than) outraged pinkette, and a (flipping!) kunai to the arm from a ramen loving ninja. But when he looks up, he sees Sakura crying through her steaming anger, and Naruto choking on bittersweet laughter.

When he looks up, he sees that they're angry not because he's back, but because he left.

.

He is walking her back from the ramen stand when he spots Sasuke striding in through the gates, and Sakura follows Naruto's gaze to see onyx eyes Sai's could never _really _replace fixed on one point in the distance, and she unwittingly starts to cry as Naruto flings a kunai at his long lost best friend and she brings a chakra infused fist to the Uchiha's (stupidstupidstupid perfect) face just to prove to him that she would never again love him the way she did. Except when his gaze rises to their faces, she can't help but keep crying, because she had dreamed of this day for half-past _forever_, and Naruto is laughing, because how could they be angry when _Sasuke_ was _back_?

.

Once the strange reunion is over, the rest of the rookie nine that lost the title 'rookie' a long time ago gathers around, and the expressions Sasuke receives vary from absolute surprise to tearful smiles to fuming rage, but underneath, they all look the same, because they all missed him _somehow_, even if they never really knew him. And eventually, all of the (so very different) faces turn to crinkled eyes and wide, wide smiles, because Team 7 was finally back together. And Sai stands back, because he knows he doesn't belong with the rest of them, and some part of his heart cries because he was just learning how to fit in, and then this **Uchiha **shows up and steals back his place.

.

After they've all figured out what exactly was happening, they drag Sasuke back to the ramen stand where Naruto and Sakura were just at, because they have to 'catch up,' as Naruto puts it, and the three of them sit down with everyone else standing around whispering excitedly that _'Sasuke was back!'_ and the original Team 7 listen to one another as their voices gradually fill up the missing years for each one of them, and for a moment, or maybe even more then that, they think that maybe, just _maybe_, things could start over from where Sasuke left off.

And Sai stays in the shadows and just watches, and that feeling of belonging that he had had _only days ago_ was gone, flying away ever so silently, because all of a sudden he realizes that now, to Naruto and Sakura, he was gone, because the person he was replacing was back, and he was no longer needed.

.

As Naruto rambles on and on about all the years Sasuke was gone, Sakura gazes into the corner where Sai stood, because she already knows what had happened - she had been there. And as she stares at Sai's face, she sees his expressionless face change—for one **second**, no less—to bitter and worn out, and she realizes that now Sasuke was back, Sai was an unnecessary fourth member to their group, and in his eyes, she can tell he knows it too.

And so she quietly excuses herself from her seat next to Sasuke and slips over to the ninja in the shadows, and simply smiles at him.

He doesn't smile back, but a little part of him feels content with standing in the background with Sakura, so long as he doesn't have to blend in with the shadows.

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Once all the years Sasuke were explained, they headed towards the Hokage Tower, with Naruto running ahead and yelling back at Sasuke and Sakura to '_hurry up already!_' The blonds behavior only invokes a smirk from the ever stoic Uchiha and an irritated sigh from the pinkheaded medic, but secretly, they're both happy (glad, ecstatic, elated, overjoyed, whatever you want to call it) that the old days were (slightly) back.

Because it feels _so damn good _to be together without chidoris and rasengans and chakra separating them from each other, keeping them from being one team again.

_Except still_, Sakura thinks, _Sasuke's eyes are so utterly different from Sai's onyx ones_, and even the carefree, grinning Naruto feels that the Uchiha (his best friend, the one who he loves like the brother he never had!) was a world apart (an uncomfortable world apart) from his so-called replacement.

.

Tsunade is expecting them (news travels **fast **in their village, Sasuke realizes. And, with a start, he finds he likes calling Konoha his—their—village once again) with a smile that is half sad and half happy, stuck in between the two emotions, and a punishment that Sasuke dearly hopes won't be too bad.

He ends up put under house arrest and constant surveillance, and is told he can't go on any missions for an entire year, but all three of the original team 7 realize how ridiculously lucky Sasuke is to get away with such a small punishment after all he'd done.

Sai stays outside and listens through the door, and he feels amazingly relieved when he realizes he would have one more year as part of team Kakashi.

.

Sakura comes out of Tsunade's office before Naruto and Sasuke to find Sai standing there, looking slightly lost and slightly glad.

And, making him pull a real smile, not another of his fake ones, she grins at him and motions for him to come in with the rest of team 7.

.

**Outrageously short, I realize, but this is the only way I write, darlings. Shortly. **

—**once upon a keyboard. **

—


End file.
